IAM Identities

Let’s now learn more about the IAM identities, starting with IAM users.

IAM users

An IAM user is an identity we can use to provide long-term account access to an individual entity using credentials. Using the IAM user credentials, the principal entity can authenticate itself with AWS and log in to the account. However, by default, the IAM users cannot perform any function besides logging into the account. To authorize the user to perform the required actions, we attach the IAM policy to the IAM user.

When to use IAM users

Here are a couple of scenarios where we can use IAM users:

Secure the root account

The main account that we create on AWS is a root account. It has all the privileges and can perform all sorts of operations. Using this account for day-to-day operations is not recommended, as it can be used to change the account settings. It is, therefore, recommended to create an IAM user with ...